"Drinking? Are you guys crazy?" Sandy stood in front of the living room fireplace, pacing back and forth with disheveled hair and a menacing scowl on his face. "2:15 in the morning. 2:15 in the morning!"

"Daddy? What's going on?" A tired Elena stood in the living room doorway, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

Sandy's expression visibly softened at the sight of a groggy and visibly shaken Elena. He looked to Kirsten, who was already rushing to Elena's side.

"Nothing, sweetie, your brothers just decided to do something stupid." He said, shooting Ryan and Seth a pointed look, before looking back at Elena with a warm smile.

"Lets get you too bed, sweetheart." Kirsten said softly, enveloping Elena into her arms.

"Can I sleep with you, mommy?" Elena asked, yawning as she took Kirsten's hand.

Kirsten smiled a watery smile before placing a kiss on Elena's forehead. "Of course you can."

Sandy cleared his throat and took a step towards Ryan and Seth. "I can handle this down here, Kirsten. You two go get some sleep."

"Dad, can we go now?" Seth piped up from his spot on the couch, meeting Sandy's gaze with narrowed eyes.

"No, you cannot go now." Sandy said incredulously, his eyes wide with disbelief.

"Oh, come on dad. Like you never got drunk at sixteen!" He slurred, rolling his eyes for good measure.

"Yeah, I did, but you damn well better believe I was in the same position you're in now." Sandy hissed, causing Seth to scoff. "I would watch it if I were you."

"Yeah, okay."

"Seth.." Ryan murmered, exasperated. "Just stop, man, you're just making it worse."

"Yeah, that's rich, coming from the son of a lush and all. Y'know what they say, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree."

Ryan's clenched his jaw as he stood up from his spot on the couch. "What did you just say to me?"

Seth stumbled off of the couch, too. "You heard me," he spat bitterly. "Better watch out for Elena too, right? It's only a matter of time."

Ryan cocked his arm back and thrust it forward, his clenched fist making contact with Seth's face.

"What the fuck, Ryan!" Seth screamed, pressing his fingers against his now bleeding lower lip.

"Boys, that's enough!" Sandy interjected, stepping infront of Ryan so as to seperate the pair. "Seth, upstairs. Ryan, bed, now! Sleep it off, and I'll deal with you two in the morning."

Sandy padded up the steps and made his way into the master bedroom, smiling softly at the sight infront of him – a sleeping Elena curled up at Kirsten's side. Kirsten, too, was dozing off but perked up at the sight of Sandy, who appeared restless and disgusted.

"What the hell happened down there?" she asked, before glancing down at Elena to make sure she was still sleeping. She stirred a little but her eyes remained closed and a light snore could be heard just a few seconds later.

"They got into a fist fight. Well, sort of. Ryan landed the only punch."

Kirsten gasped. "They….what? Over what, exactly?"

"Seth started talking about Ryan's family and–"

"Oh, God."

"Yep."

"What did you do?"

"I told them to sleep it off and that we'd deal with it in the morning. What's the point in punishing them if they're–"

"Not going to remember it the next morning." Kirsten finished for him.

Sandy nodded. "Well, we oughta get some sleep. They'll be getting an early wake up call tomorrow."

He leaned over and brushed his lips against Kirsten's before walking over to his side of the bed and crawling under the sheets.

"Rise and shine, Seth!" Sandy's voice echoed through Seth's room as he tore the comforter from his son in one swift motion.

"Keep it down, dad, please." Seth moaned, burying his head into the pillow and wrapping his arm around himself.

"Nope. Up, right now. I'm not asking you, I'm telling you."

Seth's head felt so, so cloudy and he could sense in Sandy's voice that something wasn't quite right. He thought back to last night – a rager at a beach house a few streets down, Summer and Taylor left, they met some kid, something happened with Luke Ward, beer, beer, beer, shots, beer, and – suddenly, he jolted upwards. "Okay, I'm up." He sighed heavily as he carefully looked around his room. "Um, dad…have you, uh…have you seen my pants?"

"No, Seth." Sandy sighed. "I haven't seen your pants."

Seth's face lit up as he saw them strewn across his dresser drawer. He was grateful that he, in his drunken haze, had managed to wait until he was actually inside of the bedroom before undressing. He quickly snatched them up and slipped into them before following his father down the steps and into the kitchen, where Ryan and Kirsten were already waiting.

"You guys know why we called you down here." Kirsten said, giving both her son and her son-to-be a disappointed look.

"M-mom, dad, I….." Seth said, splaying his hand across his forehead as he slipped into the chair nearest Ryan. "I can explain. Everything that happened last night."

"Nobody's stopping you, Seth." Kirsten said.

Seth opened his mouth to speak before careful ly glancing over at Ryan, who seemed to be lost in his own thoughts. "Mom, dad." Seth said again slowly, hoping Ryan would interrupt or Elena would come waltzing through the door, but nothing. The tension in the room was palpable and the anger was practically radiating off of his mother, who was looking at him expectantly, and he knew he had to choose his words very carefully.

"How much did you two have to drink last night?" Kirsten asked before he was able to say anything else.

"A lot," he admitted before glancing over at Ryan, who nodded his head in agreement.

Sandy heaved a sigh as he ran his hand through his hair. "What the hell were you two thinking? Hm? Staying out until 2:30am and showing up here drunk? And on top of it, getting into a fist fight?"

"We weren't," Ryan answered quickly, while Seth solemnly nodded his head in agreement. Wait a second. A fist fight?

"What are…" Seth began to ask but stopped mid-sentence, clamping his hand over his mouth.

They all slowly looked over at Seth, who's face was growing greener and greener by the second. He quickly stood up and bolted from the kitchen chair over towards the trash can, but he missed it by a good foot as he emptied the contents of his stomach onto the kitchen floor.

Kirsten cringed and slowly closed her eyes while Sandy shook his head, disgusted.

"Clean it up," Kirsten said, slipping out of her seat at the head of the table and placing her now empty mug onto the island. She heard a throat clear behind her and she quickly whipped her head around to see a moritifed Elena standing there, her nose scrunched up in disgust and her browns knitted together in confusion.

"Is everything okay?"

"Fine," Kirsten smiled but, despite Kirsten's best efforts to prove otherwise, Elena still sensed something wasn't quite right. She looked over at Seth, who was hunched over the trash can with vomit caked to his face and then over at Ryan, who was absent mindedly staring down at the table. Kirsten exchanged glances with Sandy before putting a comforting hand on Elena's shoulder. "Why don't I make you some pancakes, and we'll eat out by the pool?"

Elena visibly brightened at the mention of pancakes and all was soon forgotten as she eagerly nodded her head and disappeared out into the back, dipping her feet into the pool as soon as she felt the blistering heat.

Under normal circumstances, Seth would smirk and (lovingly) warn Elena about the quality of their mothers pancakes, but this wasn't a normal circumstance. His head was aching and spinning, simultaneously, his lip was, for reasons unbeknownst to him, throbbing, there was (his) vomit all over the floor and he was on very thin ice with every single person in the room. So instead of cracking a joke or pretending everything was peachy, he crawled over to the counter and pulled some paper towels off of it.

"Disinfectant's under the sink," Kirsten said hollowly as she began pulling the pancake ingredients out of the cupboard and fridge.

Seth cleaned up his mess as Kirsten quickly whipped up a stack of chocolate pancakes for Elena and brought them out to her, along with a glass of orange juice and some syrup. She was ready to walk back into the house when she felt Elena's hand tug on hers, asking her to sit with her. She felt bad leaving Sandy in there to deal with Ryan and Seth alone, but she knew she had Elena to worry about as well.

Kirsten only smiled as she sat down opposite Elena, wanting desperately to appear as though everything was okay. That didn't last long, though, as Elena asked, "Did Seth and Ryan get into a fight?" before shoving a forkful of pancake into her mouth.

Kirsten looked up, clearly caught off guard by the question, and paused. Her and Sandy had intended to keep the whole debacle from Elena, because she didn't need to know and really, what good would telling her do? But she was very perceptive and understandably curious and, Kirsten thought, maybe she deserved to know. "Something like that," she admitted quietly.

"Is that why you guys are angry with them?"

"That, among other things."

Elena nodded her head and chewed thoughtfully, clearly trying to make sense of everything in her head.

"Don't worry about it, sweetheart. It's just….teenager stuff."

"You guys looked really mad," she said sadly, setting her fork back on her plate.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Well, we were…are angry, but it's not something you have to concern yourself with. I promise."

"I just…"

"…"

"Is this going to change anything? With Ryan and me?"

Realization hit Kirsten like a ton of bricks and she quickly placed her hand on top of Elena's, who had a troubled frown on her face.

"Sweetie, no, of course not. Why would you think something like that?"

"Because we've both put you guys through so much and–"

"That's what being parents are all about, sweetheart." Kirsten said softly and kissed her cheek. "We love you and Ryan so much, you are our kids now. Nothing is ever going to change that."

Elena smiled as she could truly believe the words Kirsten were saying. "Okay mommy." She Said as she continued to eat. "These are really good."

Kirsten smiled warmly at her. "Thanks sweetie."

OCOCOCOC

Ryan and Seth sat in the living room of the house waiting for their impending doom. Seth turned to Ryan, and with an ashamed looked on his face.

"Ry, man I am so, so sorry for what I said last night. I didn't mean it." Seth said, about to start groveling for his forgiveness.

Ryan looked at his hands which were folding together. "It's okay Seth."

"No, no it's not okay. I really, really made you mad, and I do not think those things, at all." Seth explained.

Ryan nodded. "Seth look, I know. I swear I know you didn't mean it. I'm not mad anymore okay. I'm sorry I punched you."

Seth laughed. "Dude it's totally fine, I mean I would have done the exact same thing if I was in your position last night. Hell I woulda kicked my own ass!"

Ryan couldn't help but chuckle as Seth did as well. Seth extended his hand to Ryan. "Friends?"

Ryan nodded shaking his hand. "No, brothers." He smiled.

Seth wore a goofy grin on his face as Sandy walked in, a belt in his hand. "Well it's so good to see you boys making up."

"Of course, we're brothers, we'll always make up." Seth said then his eyes grew wide when he saw the thick leather belt that was limp in his father's fist.

"Well that's great, but we still have an issue to address." Sandy said smugly. "Well we already had the discussion part, mind as well just get the punishment over with shall we?"

Seth and Ryan nodded nervously. Ryan's head snapped up when Sandy started speaking to him. "Ryan, go stand over there in the corner please while I handle Seth first."

Ryan chuckled but then saw his face. "R-really? Sandy, I'm 16, I can't stand in the corner."

Sandy crossed his arms and raised his eye brows. "You can and you will." Was all he said which made Ryan jump up and rush to the corner, letting out a light huff.

"Seth, stand up, drop your pants to your boxers and bend over the back of the couch." Sandy ordered as he folded the belt in half. Seth didn't think twice about arguing. He gulped but obeyed gripping the couch cushions as he waited for the first swat.

Without hesitation Sandy cocked his arm back and landed the belt in the middle of his behind making him cry out. He repeated but making the swat just a little lower than the first blow. He repeated it for about a good 20 or so licks until he really felt that Seth was remorseful. Once he finished he hung the belt over the back of the couch and told Seth to pull his pants up. Once his pants were up, Sandy guided Seth in his arms and hugged him as Seth just cried in his shoulder. "I'm so, so sorry dad!" Seth sobbed. "Shh son, it's okay now." He whispered in his ear rubbing circles on his back. After a few moments he pulled away from Seth. "Okay bud, I want you to switch places with Ryan."

A teary eyes, and very sorry Seth nodded and stood in the same corner Ryan just was. Ryan was visibly nervous for this punishment. It has been a very long time since he had felt the belt. Sandy could tell his new son was nervous, he put his hand on his shoulder and gave him a reassuring smile. "It'll be over and okay soon Ryan."

Ryan nodded as he saw Sandy go for the belt again. "Same thing, Pants down, just your boxers and bend over the couch please."

Ryan obeyed, he was bouncing slightly, being nervous; but he stopped when Sandy put a gentle hand on his back. Sandy cocked his hand back and brought the belt down in the middle of his behind like he did with Seth. As with Seth though, Ryan didn't cry out right away he just let out a slight grunt. Then the second, third and fourth came and his bottom was on fire! Tears stung his eyes and he choked on a dry sob. By the 15th swat he was crying and hoping that it will be over soon. At the 18th lick, Ryan broke. "I'm sorry! Dad I'm so sorry!" Well that right there told Sandy that Ryan was definitely remorseful and could tell he was truly sorry. He couldn't help but smile though at the fact that he called him 'dad'. He told him to pull his pants up. Once his pants were up Sandy took him in a strong embrace as Ryan cried. "shh Ryan, it's okay now. Shh."

Ryan calmed down and looked at Sandy, sniffling. "I-I'm sorry I called you dad." He said blushing, looking away.

Sandy guided his chin up to look at him "Hey, Ryan, you are my son now. And I am so honored that you feel you can call me dad. So do not apologize, okay?" He smiled.

Ryan gave him a smiled of relief and just hugged him again. 'Thank you."

Sandy smiled and patted his back and pulled apart. "Okay Seth you can come out. You two have been punished and all is forgiven, but if this ever happens again, you two will be grounded on top of being spanked on your bare bottom, understood?"

"Yes sir." The boys acknowledged in unison.

Kirsten walked in the room smiling with a very happy Elena. "Someone here wants to have a family day." Kirsten announced smiling down at Elena.

"Yeah! And we can start in the pool!" Elena jumped excitedly.

Ryan smiled down at his sister who he hasn't seen so happy in a very long time. "Yeah, sounds good, the cool water shall feel good." He chuckled and started making his way to the pool house to change.

Seth was pumped. "Sweet I'll go change." He said and passed Elena giving her a high five on his way to his room.

"Daddy do you think you can make burgers tonight on the grill!?" Elena asked with a big smile.

"Of course I can." Sandy smiled.

"Yay!1" Elena cheered and ran up to her room to get changed.

Kirsten walked to Sandy and wrapped her arms around him. "I love you so much."

Sandy kissed the top of her head. "I love you too, Kirsten." He smiled.